Pine River Lends $23M on Downtown Milwaukee Apartment Building

Vantage on the Park at 916 East State Street in downtown Milwaukee. Photo: NKF

Millennial Partners and Klein Development have scored a $23 million loan from Pine River Capital to refinance Vantage on the Park, a recently redeveloped luxury apartment building in downtown Milwaukee, Commercial Observer has learned.

“Millennial Partners and Klein Development make a formidable partnership,” Stolly said in a statement. “This pre-TCO financing allows the owners to recapture equity and fund remaining costs. The partnership will have the flexibility to recapitalize the asset once it reaches stabilization.”

Vantage on the Park—located at 916 East State Street—sits on one-acre of land and comprises 96 units and 7,500 square feet of street retail space in downtown Milwaukee’s Yankee Hill neighborhood, just a short walk from Juneau Park and Veterans Park, which are on the shores of Milwaukee Bay in Lake Michigan.

In September 2017 the joint venture purchased the 159-key, roughly 92,000-square-foot Park East Hotel from local Milwaukee real estate investor Ajit Walia for just $9 million and began its demolition and redevelopment into Vantage on the Park, according to report from Milwaukee BizTimes.

“We think we will only be competing against a handful of projects given this incredible location,” Millennial managing partner Derek Schneider told Milwaukee BizTimes in September 2017, at the time of the sale. “This will be a Class-A building that is one block from the lake and within walking distance from the central business district.”

Schneider told the BizTimes that the apartments will be a mix of studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms and will also feature an additional sixth floor at the top of building, which will be used as a community room and rooftop deck.

“The location is pretty phenomenal,” Klein Development president Michael Klein told BizTimes at the time of the Park East Hotel sale. “The area has been densely populated for 100 years with residences, high-end condos or Class-B and -C apartments, so we feel like there is a niche there that we can fill with Class-A apartments.”

The joint venture’s ties go way back. Michael Klein and his brother, Joe Klein—a principal at HKS Holdings—are childhood friends of Schneider, according to previously reported comments from Joe in BizTimes.

A representative for Pine River Capital was not immediately able to provide comment before publication. Klein Development could not be reached. Derek Schneider did not immediately respond to an inquiry.